Head of Insight and Evaluation

Active Lincolnshire is seeking an experienced and motivated individual to lead our approach to insight, evaluation and learning. This pivotal role will be responsible for developing and embedding processes and systems to ensure we are a data and learning-led organisation, enabling us to understand and communicate the short and long-term impact of our work.

The purpose of the role is to share information that enables people to make informed decisions to tackle the inequalities that exist in physical activity and to ensure that Active Lincolnshire can articulate the impact of our work on enabling people to lead more active lives.

We want to recruit a driven individual looking to make a difference to the health of our community. They should be able to reflect, see a broader picture and connect the dots. Enabling a smart approach to our work and making a difference where it’s needed. They should be driven towards a collaborative approach of working, encouraging, championing and enabling others along the way.

Active Lincolnshire is a charity and one of the national network of Active Partnerships supported by Sport England to lead the local implementation of the national ‘Uniting the Movement’ strategy which we do through ‘Let’s Move Lincolnshire’ the countywide strategy for physical activity.

It is our aim that everyone in Lincolnshire has options and opportunities to be active every day. We are particularly focussed on increasing physical activity levels and using the positive power of sport and physical activity to tackle inequalities. Lincolnshire as a county has high levels of inactivity, exacerbating other challenges including longterm health conditions - further impacted by gaps in the provision of relevant and accessible opportunities to be active.

Tackling the challenge of inactivity requires us to be working at system level with a wide and complex network of partners and stakeholders and understanding people in our communities.

Anyone joining the Active Lincolnshire team must demonstrably uphold our values of integrity, collaboration, inclusivity, innovation and learning and our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and tackling inequalities. Given the nature of the role, an utmost ability to maintain and respect confidentiality is crucial.

How we behave and our ways of working are important to success – specifically the post holder will need to be committed to being a team player, having empathy, a growth mindset and understanding other perspectives.

As Head of Insight and Evaluation you will:

• Provide leadership and expertise in insight, evaluation and learning across the organisation.
• Develop and embed monitoring, learning and evaluation methods to guide our work and track progress.
• Develop an approach to monitor our impact against organisational, local and national goals.
• Collaborate across the organisation to embed learning processes.
• Foster and advocate for an organisation culture of continuous learning within Active Lincolnshire and external partners.

This role requires the ability to navigate complex, whole system ways of working and to translate insights into actionable strategies that drive positive change.

Key Responsibilities

Develop Insight, Evaluation and Learning Frameworks.

• Design and embed robust systems for collecting and interpreting qualitative and quantitative data.
• Connect with Sport England monitoring, learning and evaluation frameworks and ways of working and embed them locally.
• Capture, collate and effectively share data from communities, stakeholders, national datasets and partners
• Analyse current patterns, trends and emotional/systemic measures to inform decisions.
• Ensure alignment with governance and programme requirements.
• Develop and maintain best practice guidance on evaluation methods.
• Upskill the Active Lincolnshire team on insight and learning approaches.
• Foster a learning culture, translating data into usable knowledge and change theories.
• Ensure our commitments to diversity, inclusion, environmental sustainability and wellbeing are embedded in all decisions.

Build a Movement through Information

• Share learning effectively with a variety of audiences to influence change.
• Develop collaborative partnerships with local and national data and insight leads.
• Interpret and present complex health and demographic data clearly and accessibly.
• Promote collaboration and data sharing across the system at local, regional and national levels.
• Develop engaging case studies and success stories to complement quantitative data.

Plan and Deliver Efficiently

• Integrate learning, monitoring and evaluation into project and programme cycles.
• Prioritise and manage reporting deadlines and governance requirements.
• Streamline processes to ensure efficient and meaningful reporting.
• Identify opportunities for shared learning and resource use across partners and programmes.

Support Innovation

• Encourage lateral thinking and creative problem-solving in insight and evaluation.
• Demonstrate confidence using various data tools and digital platforms.
• Present data in imaginative and audience-appropriate formats.
• Inspire and enable others to share and act on learning across our systems.

Person Specification Essential

• Proven analytical ability to interpret complex qualitative and quantitative data.
• Demonstrable experience in evaluation, insight generation and data-driven decision making.
• Strong understanding of working with and within community-based contexts.
• Familiarity with monitoring and evaluation methodology, including Social Return on Investment (SROI)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to influence stakeholders and build trusted, long-term relationships.
• Confidence in translating academic or data-dense material for practical use.
• Experience supporting projects with uncertainty or evolving approaches.
• Demonstrate a genuine commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Ability to respond quickly to insight needs for funding or development opportunities.
• Ability to produce reports using multiple data sets and information sources and to present findings to various stakeholders.
• Ability to be flexible and agile in your approach, responding to the needs of the organisation and local need as it evolves.
• Excellent team player with interpersonal skills, ability to develop meaningful relationship as a trusted colleague and partner.
• Current, valid, driving licence
• Excellent understanding of the English language
• Fluent in IT, digital skills and technology
• Uphold integrity in all that you do, working transparently and with accountability

Desirable

• Experience working with health-based data (e.g., Active Lives, Moving Communities).
• Knowledge of Lincolnshire’s communities, stakeholders and demographics.

Qualifications and qualities

We’re more interested in your approach, personal and professional experiences and your attitude, than formal qualifications; however, an excellent standard of written and spoken English is essential for this role. You must be passionate about the positive power of sport and physical activity.

What matters to us is that we have talented, enthusiastic and experienced professionals working with us who can help deliver our vision. You don't have to be sporty to work at Active Lincolnshire, but you must be passionate about people and the positive power sport and physical activity can have on people’s lives. We’re more interested in your experience and attitude than formal qualifications.

Inclusive Recruitment Process

We operate an inclusive, equitable and transparent recruitment and assessment process, underpinned by an organisational commitment to equality and diversity. We actively encourage applications from candidates from diverse backgrounds who can bring an array of skills and experience to our organisation. We’re committed to making sure every applicant is assessed solely on merit and relevant experience to do the job.

As an employer, we actively seek to ensure that our workforce reflects the communities we serve, recognising that this makes us better able to understand their needs and priorities. We can only do this by ensuring that the people who work for us are the best they can be irrespective of age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, marital status, religion or belief.

We value the ideas and contributions from everybody and welcome and support difference. Our aim is to make sure that equality, diversity and inclusion run through everything we do as an employer.

We encourage applications from people with disabilities, and guarantee interviews for applicants with disabilities that meet the requirement of the role as part of our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme.

Key Dates

• Application deadline: Wednesday 11th June 2025
• Interviews: Week commencing Monday 23rd June (at our Lincoln office)

Place of work Flexible/hybrid working with community-based and Lincoln office presence.

Contract 12-month fixed-term, with potential to become permanent.

Benefits

• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays + 3 days at Christmas
• Celebration Day (personal choice)
• Westfield Health private healthcare
• Cycle to work scheme
• Flexible working policy
• Time to be active in the working week
• Team away days
• Training and development opportunities
• Employer pension contributions
• Time in the working week to volunteer
• Staff wellbeing policy 
• Opportunity to make a meaningful impact in Lincolnshire

£39,000 to £45,000 (dependent on skills and experience).

Reporting to Director

Responsible for no direct reports

Closing date Wednesday 11th June 2025